Top 10 blog posts that will help you improve your self storage SEO

If you checked out our top ten blogs to help you automate your self storage business article, you might be looking to revamp your business model and promote your brand online. If you’re interested in picking up your web marketing efforts, so many of the tools you’ll discover are impacted by three little letters: SEO, or search engine optimization.

Don’t be scared away by the acronym! Even if you’re just learning about search ranking and optimization for the first time, the resources in this article will surely help you to expand your knowledge and move forward using smarter, more efficient online marketing tools. We’ve gathered our most popular SEO posts and summarized key points from each to jumpstart your research. Browse our top posts below!

Sometimes it’s a little tricky to tell what affects your SEO and what doesn’t. Having a well-designed website that’s SEO friendly will help potential customers connect to you by enabling them to find your site in a search. Check out this blog post to educate yourself on things that affect your website’s ranking and things that don’t.

Read this post if:

You’re thinking about switching website providers

You’re not sure how to assess your website’s SEO

Search engine trends and data interest you

Quotable moment

Web agencies may use jargon that they know you don’t understand to convince you there’s something wrong with your website that they can fix to win your business. But it's important to know that CSS is not page content, and it's not likely to affect your SEO or your rankings. If your website has CSS validation errors, you're not alone! This is because there are multiple ways to get the same result with CSS, and even big sites, like Amazon and Netflix, have CSS errors, too. There are also particular CSS tactics that ensure your site looks good no matter how a user finds you, be it through Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge.

If you have a website, you might already have a Google Analytics account tracking your website’s progress! If you’re just getting started tracking your website’s performance, check out this article to find out what Google Analytics is, why you need it for your self storage website, and how you can get started fast.

Read this post if:

Data and analytics interest you

You already have a self storage website

You’re not sure how to check your website’s stats

Quotable moment

These are just a few of the questions you can answer with Google Analytics data:
- How many visitors is your website getting every month?
- What neighborhood is my website most popular with? What part of town (or neighboring town) offers more marketing opportunities for me?
- Are more visitors finding me on mobile or on desktop?
- Which of my social media websites is most effective at bringing in leads?
- Which pages on my website are most popular? Are people utilizing my FAQ content or self storage calculator?

As you may already know, SEO is constantly changing. Major search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms to stay ahead of new technology and improve the search process for users. If you’re curious how the latest update will affect your storage business, check out this post.

Read this post if:

You’re interested in how customers can contact your business

You’re looking to improve your Google listings

You like using social media websites

Quotable moment

Just like reviews, the new questions and answers feature is something you’re going to want to keep an eye on. When a user posts a question, you’ll want to make sure to answer it promptly as a business owner. Since this is a new feature, there’s no telling quite how popular it will become with users. But to get out ahead of it, you can post a few of your own Q&A. If your website has an FAQ page, then you already have Q&A written up! Simply copy and paste some of the questions and answers from your FAQ page into your Google Q&A.

Step into your renter’s shoes with this great article detailing the steps customers take when they look for self storage online and how they decide where to rent. We walk through every step of the the search process and explain how to find out how your website is ranking in search without negatively impacting your rank on Google. Pro tip: If you’re a Meat Loaf fan, you definitely won’t want to miss this article.

Read this post if:

You’re curious to learn how to check your search engine ranking

You want to understand the self storage consumer process from start to finish

You like 80’s rock

Quotable moment

Marvin is not satisfied with what he found in the local search results, so he heads back to his search results and browses the first page. He clicks the first link to appear after the local search results, which takes him to Big Texas Storage Place. He checks out Big Texas Storage Place’s homepage and clicks around to find prices and read about their security. He isn’t happy with the amount of security at Big Texas Storage Place, and he can’t find a picture of it, so he heads back to his search results. He clicks the next listing, AAA Dallas Mini Storage Place, and checks out their homepage. Their homepage is even worse: the latest news is announcing their December holiday hours (it’s July), and it looks like it hasn’t been updated since the early 2000s. It also doesn’t mention anything about security. (Marvin would do anything for extra space, but he won’t do that!) Marvin clicks back to his search results again.

If you’re new to the industry and looking to create your very first website, you won’t want to miss this post! Check it out to learn our top five tips for setting up a new website that generates leads, brings in customers, and won’t give you a headache in the future.

Read this post if:

You’re new to the self storage industry

You need a new website for your self storage business

Lists and step-by-step processes interest you

Quotable moment

I love making lists, and goal-setting. Hopefully you do, too, because it’s time to make another list of your goals. Since you’ve done your market research and you know what you can get from a self storage website provider, now you can set goals and decide what you’ll need from your website to effectively market your business online.

Need a little help with goal-setting? Start simple. You’ll definitely want your storage business’s website to be optimized for mobile devices, and you’ll probably want to provide online move-ins to new customers. Based on your business’s amenities, you can make even more specific goals. For example, you might want your business to rank on the first page for “self storage in your town name,” or if you are planning on specializing in RV, boat, and vehicle storage, then maybe you’d want to rank for “RV storage in your town name.” Maybe you want to rank highly in search results for both of these queries. It all depends on the scope of your business and your marketing goals.

We’re talking return on investment (ROI) and average lifetime value of a customer (ALV) in this super-short blog post featuring an informative infographic with key information on self storage marketing. You’ll learn how to calculate your customers’ ALV, find the ROI on your marketing efforts, and find the relationship between ALV and ROI.

Read this post if:

Charts and graphs interest you

You like digging into data to find opportunities in business

You’re in a time crunch

Quotable moment

When you’re evaluating your marketing ROI, whether it be from radio ads, digital marketing efforts, or simply a billboard on the freeway, it’s essential to factor in the average lifetime value of a customer (ALV). Your business’s ALV tells you how long the average tenant rents from you at the average price of a unit. For example, if your average storage customer pays $100/month and stays for 12 months, the ALV will be $1,200. As ALV increases, so does your ROI.

There are dozens of smart home assistants in the market right now, and they’re a hot item for this year’s holiday shopping season. The Amazon Echo (with Alexa), the Google Home assistant, the Apple HomePod, and Windows Cortana all use voice technology to complete actions like online shopping, online search, social media, and more. As a self storage business owner, it’s essential to make sure your website is easily readable by voice assistant tools like Alexa and voice searches done by tech-savvy consumers.

Even if you’re not a Google nerd, you can learn a lot from checking out our summary of the latest Google updates. Why do these Google updates matter? Because they can affect your search engine ranking!

As digital marketing professionals, the team at storEDGE is always researching the latest Google algorithm changes and search updates in order to build and maintain high-performing websites. If you want to catch up on what’s new, check out this short summary and learn why they called it Possum, what changed, and how it affects your self storage business.

Read this post if:

You want to boost leads from local search

Your self storage business is located outside of city limits

You’re using a virtual office or downtown P.O. box

Quotable moment

Google’s algorithm is the basis behind what shows up in Google search results. The algorithm crawls the web looking for indicators (such as traffic, fresh content, working links, matching information, and much, much more) that it uses to determine whether or not your website is useful to Googlers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art of wooing the almighty algorithm so that your business shows up in the top search results, which ultimately brings you more customers.

Self storage managers know their customers better than anyone else in the business. They know what customers ask for, what rentals are the most popular, and what other local businesses are popular in the community. Why not utilize managers’ immense knowledge of the local community and the customers to your advantage online?

Check out this article to find out how you can improve your website’s SEO by partnering with local businesses in the community, listening to the wants and needs of customers, and working through grassroots efforts.

Read this post if:

You’re interested in building up your storage business as a part of the community

You’re working on improving manager-owner communication

Lists and actionable steps interest you

Quotable moment

One of the most valuable pieces of knowledge you have is an insider’s perspective of your area. You know your town’s quirks and which neighborhood hotspots are near your property. For instance, is your facility one mile away from the Walmart that’s always packed with customers? Just off the I-35 exit with all the good restaurants? If you include information like this in the content on your website, you frame your business in a way that helps potential customers find you. Google will also crawl these key locations and use them in your local SEO.

Whether or not you’re interested in web design or website layout, you need to at least be able to tell the difference between a great website, a good website, and a poor website. It’s not as hard as you might think! Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll learn important basics in this article that can help you learn more about what you’re paying for with SEO content.

Read this post if:

You’re new to SEO and learning the basics

You’re curious what impact content has on your website

Articles with do’s and don’ts interest you

Quotable moment

When you own a website for your self storage brand, there are certain HTML and SEO phrases that become a part of your vocabulary. Why? If you’re going to take the time, effort, and money to produce and manage a website, there are certain steps you must take to 1) improve the user’s experience, and 2) improve the website’s visibility on search engine results pages. Ignoring one or both of these components to a website can send your brand’s online presence into the abyss – and ultimately send your potential renters to one of the other storage facilities in town.

Jana is a marketing communications specialist living in Kansas City. A graduate of South Dakota State University with a master's in mass communication, Jana enjoys bringing technology, web marketing and industry news and tips to self storage owners and managers.